It was always a pleasure to write. I can never think of a time when I just hacked something out to fulfil a contract or meet a deadline. I might have hacked things out, but it was always stuff I loved.

Whatever came to mind, whatever came to hand, I would read.

I have two amazing things in my life: I'm pain-free and I'm debt-free.

The King is in his Tower, eating bread and honey. The Breakers in the basement, making all the money.

Everyone needs a hobby, he said. And everyone needs a miracle or two, just to prove life is more than just one long trudge from the cradle to the grave.

You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.

...stupidity is one of the two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances.